Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

Chapter Thirteen: The Force Awakens

With Finn gone and Rey and BB-8 off looking for him, the talbe was left half empty. I got up, moving seats to sit next to my father, who still looked mildly annoyed at Maz's suggestion for him to go home to my mother. His annoyance wasn't helped as I leant over, taking his drink, taking a swig and grimacing at the taste. 

"Aren't you too young to be drinking?" he scowled at me, taking the glass off me and setting it back down on the table, far out of my reach. 

"Twenty six, Dad," I reminded him, holding back a sad laugh. 

"It's been a long time, Little Solo," Maz spoke up, the nickname throwing me back years. 

"Last time I was here I was with Iz and Erika," I recalled, biting my lip at the thought of them. "Nearly seven years," 

Maz had a sad look in her eye as I mentioned the years that had past, and I knew it was because she understood what had happened shortly after my last visit. It was only days after leaving her castle that the three of us returned back to the academy and out lives shattered. It was bizarre to think about, that in a space of a week I had gone from drinking and dancing round with my two best friends in that very room, singing along to cantina songs, to nearly being killed by my brother, surrounded by the corpses of my friends. I shuddered, taking a deep breath to try and stop the grief hitting me all over again, staring down at the table before looking back to Maz, trying not to pay attention to her sympathetic gaze. 

"Your mother has been in touch with me," she told me, and I sat up straighter at the mention of General Leia Organa, ignoring the way my father paled at the mention of the wife he abandoned. "She had me on look out, just in case you came this way,"

"You've spoke to Leia?" My father choked out, and there was something back the way that he spoke my mother's name, with reverence and caution, that told me that he was still deeply in love with her, even if things were complicated.

"Of course I have, scoundrel, she does still exist even though you'd like to pretend that she doesn't!" Maz snapped back at him, letting out an exasperated laugh. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, before Maz turned her focus back onto me. "She's been worried about you, Lucinda. You know your mother, she's not one to give up hope but..."

Maz trailed off, and I instantly understood what she was implying. My mother was the strongest person I knew, suffering emotional hit after hit, losing so much but yet still sticking to the path of the light, holding out hope for a bright, safe future. She never gave up hope that my father would come back, or that Luke would return, or that Ben would turn back to the light, but the way Maz was talking made it sound as though she had begun to give up on me. My mother had thought I was dead, and the realisation that I'd put my mother through such emotional pain made me feel anxious. I'd thought of her daily, but barely considered how my absence would effect her, telling myself that I was looking for my father who would fix all of our problems, except by me going away, I'd just caused more trouble. 

"I went to look for Dad," I explained to Maz, looking down at me hands, feeling ashamed. "It didn't quite go to plan, but maybe isolating myself had some benefits at least. I never realised how suffocated I was at base after what happened, but being alone gave me the time to start coming to terms with things. I'll miss the academy forever, and everyone I lost, but now I feel I can at least function around that pain," 

I took another deep breath, making myself feel a little calmer now I felt as though I'd justified my disappearance, leaning back in my seat. I'd needed to get away to mourn away from the pressure of trying to be useful for the cause, and I realised just how similar my excuse was to my father's, since he left to escape the possibility of having to fight his children, as well as get away from any reminders of his loss. 

"All  can do now is help the fight again, and that's what you should do too," I spoke, shooting a pointed look at my father, trying not to feel as though I was begging him to return, especially as I saw the hesitancy I his expression. "We've both spent far too long running away, but you've had more than enough time to deal with this mess. You can't run anymore, Mum never ran," 

"It was always her fight, just as this has always been yours!" he exclaimed frustratedly, and I saw the hurt in his eyes, the guilt back once more. He felt guilty for my upbringing, I sensed, regretting me being drawn into the political mess of the galaxy at such a young age. "Leia was raised hating the empire, and grew up fighting it. I had to be dragged in,"

"And now I'm dragging you back," I said simply with a small shrug, pushing away any emotion I felt about my father's regrets, not wanting to dwell on the past, just the future and how we could make things right. 

That was when I realised just how long Rey had been gone. I was concerned for my new friend of course, this probably being the first time in a long time she'd been off Jakku, but I was also worried for BB-8, the droid following her loyally. Without saying anything, I pushed my chair back, getting up from the table, wandering off in search of the scavenger girl. 

"She's right, Solo," I overheard Maz say as I left, admiration in her voice. "She has her mother's fighting spirit, she really is a Skywalker,"

"That's what I'm afraid of," Dad grunted in response, and even though he was trying to hide it, I could hear the fear and worry in his tone. 

I was out of hearing distance then, and far too concerned as to where Rey and BB-8 had gone to dwell on my father. Looking around, I couldn't see either of them anywhere. That was until it was as though the room had fallen silent as I heard a distant voice calling out to me. I froze, a frown creeping onto my face, turning to try and find where the noise was coming from. 

"Darth Solo!" the voice screamed out to me again tauntingly, and out of habit of the nickname I flinched, feeling sick as I realised that everyone who used to mock me with that name was killed a long time ago.

The voice was followed by a scream, one that echoed around my head as I realised that, as I looked furiously around the room, no one had actually screamed, and no one had called me that name. It was all a part of the force, in my head, and I knew that no matter what fear it instilled in me, it was calling to me and I knew I had to follow.

I took off at a run, weaving in and out of people as I followed the call to the force. It was as if it was pulling me itself, and I ran to it like it was a lifeline. I earned a few glares and hateful calls as I knocked past people, but I hardly noticed, the only thing mattering to me being the pull. I'd not felt the force calling me like this for such a long time, not since lessons at the academy, and it felt as though I was being greeted by an old friend. I was so focused I barely payed any attention as to where I was going, hardly noticing as I ran through the back corridor. I only came to my senses as I tripped and went skidding down a flight of stairs, crashing onto my knees, surrounded by darkness. 

I took in a sharp breath, looking around at my surroundings and even in the poor lighting I knew where I was. Maz's basement, a place that used to terrify me as a kid, ever since I snuck down there when I was seven and got lost. I wasn't a kid who scared easy, so when my father found me crouched in one of the alcoves crying, I vowed to never go down there again. The cobwebs in every crevice and creepy echoes usually left me feeling rather wary, and it always reminded me of the stories my parents had told me about Jabba the Hutt's palace. Too late now though, as I pulled myself to my feet. I could hardly see, the only light coming from the cantina upstairs, but it didn't matter, the pull was still there, all I had to do was trust in the force. 

"Come to me, Lucinda," I heard a voice whisper, and knew it was one within the force, shutting my eyes and letting it envelop me fully as I began to move towards the voice. "Be with me," 

The voice wasn't one I recognised, but it was familiar all the same. It was like an old friend calling out to me, and so I followed until my foot banged into something. I opened my eyes, squinting through the poor lighting to see BB-8, looking up at me and beeping eagerly. I frowned, listening to what he was trying to tell me, until I loved up, seeing Rey crouched lowly, leaning over something hidden from my view by her body. 

"Rey?" I asked carefully, resting my hand on her shoulder. 

The girl jumped, spinning around so quickly she nearly tripped over. There was an aura of fear about her, her eyes widening as she looked at me, terrified until she recognised me. I noticed as she fell back she threw something against the wall, with enough force for it to clang against the stone wall. As she moved, my eyes fell onto what she'd been hiding and shock filled my stomach as I fell to my knees, my shaking hands reaching out to stroke the wooden, unlatched chest. 

"What's this doing here?" I whispered shakily, fighting back tears as I recognised it. "This... This doesn't belong here..."

I didn't have too long to focus on the chest, not as my gaze drifted away, resting on Rey and the feelings of terror radiating off her. She seemed to be panting, her eyes still fixed on the object she'd thrown across the room. Curiosity got the better of me and I got to my feet, moving over to the object on the floor.

"Luci, no, don't touch that... That thing!" she stammered out, overwhelmed by emotions. 

I didn't listen, because the closer I got I recognised just what it was, a warm feeling rushing over me. I knelt once more, looking over at the lightsaber on the floor before me, expecting it to be one I knew as well as my own, since it had been in that chest after all. Except the closer I looked at it, the more I realised it was not Ben's, and instead it was one that made me feel as though I knew it within my soul.   The sleek design, the feeling of overwhelming history it seemed to radiate to me. This was what had been calling to me, the way it had done once before, and I realised why, letting out a small gasp. 

This was the lightsaber of the Skywalker's. Luke Skywalker's, Anakin's before him, the one Ben and I had recklessly retrieved from the gas shafts of Cloud City as teenagers. It was our right, we had told each other. We might have been Organa-Solo's by name, but we were Skywalker's by blood, the legacy of Anakin Skywalker. At the time neither of us realised just how true that was, but I tried not to dwell on that, not as I held my hand out, calling the saber to me as if it was my own, an extension of my soul. 

As soon as it came into my grip, what little light that shone in the room disappeared, as well as the warmth of the room as I suddenly felt as though I was on a whole different planet. I was surrounded by silence, as though I was locked in a dark, inescapable box, until I heard the familiar hums of several lightsabers, blue and green lighting up through the darkness. With the light, my vision came back, seeing the fog of my breath escaping my lips as I stood, looking around myself, feeling the sensation of snow falling onto me. I knew where I was, a place I knew as well as I knew the Falcon, the great trees around me feeling like old friends as I spotted every slash mark cut deep into them from years of lightsaber practice, every dented branch from years of climbing. The trees twisted together at the top forming a protective canopy, but through the leaves I could just about see the stars shining down on me, and I remembered the years I had spent sat out on the grass, dreaming of the days I would get to explore them all. 

I was home. It was the Academy on Ajan Kloss. It had been so long but yet everything was ust the same, the exact way I remembered it to be. The smell of the nature around me, the stone piles built by my friends during lessons of the force, nothing had changed. Except it was quiet, far too quiet for a place meant to be full of teenagers and young adults. That was when I looked to the ground, the forest previously lit by the stars now being illuminated by lightning as I looked upon the corpses of my friends. The peace was gone, the forest consumed in flames, the same flames that destroyed the temple, but they did not seem to touch my friends their bodies remaining frozen in time, captured by my memories. 

Jakkal, his lightsaber still lit lying by his right hand, his laft hand clenching to his stomach tightly as if he was trying to heal his fatal wound. Katjie and Mari, laid side-by-side, their hands interlocked as if comforting each other in death. Alecai, Cho, Tai, Micha, Evvy... All of them were dead, and as I heard the furious humming of a malfunctioning lightsaber, I spun around, coming face to face with my brother as his lightsaber found home in Jax's chest, my friend becoming yet another victim of my brother. 

Even upon seeing that, I was desperate for my brother to turn around, for me to see his face, but the scene shifted from beneath my feet. I stumbled, falling back down, clenching onto the Skywalker lightsaber as if my life depended on it. I fell onto the floor of the new sandy terrain I had landed in, the heat pounding down on me as I looked up, seeing the sky a fiery red as the twin suns set, two X-Wing ships soaring off far away from me. 

"Mourn them, do not. Your emotions you must control," the echoed voice of a long-gone Jedi master called out to me, and as I gazed off to the sunset the scene changed.

An island in the middle of the sea, rocky and surrounding in greenery and inhabited by small, bird-like creatures. I hardly noticed the island and it's animals though, not as I spotted the figure stood at the cliff's edge. I knew who it was, someone I knew so well, someone I longed for even though that someone had abandoned me when I needed him the most.

"Uncle Luke!" I screamed, but he was gone, and again I was in a snowy forest, except it wasn't the academy's. 

I tried to figure out where I was, anxiety filling me at the prospect of the unknown, until I heard the vicious hum of a malfunctioning lightsaber once more and I jumped to my feet standing in front of my brother for the first time in years, though it wasn't him. He looked haunted, hollow, his eyes darkened and full of tragedy. This wasn't the Ben I knew, this man was warped by darkness in the persona of Kylo Ren. Yet still, he was my brother, I loved him, and I felt my heart break at the sight of him. 

"Ben!" I screamed his name, and upon my calling out, I felt an almost electric sensation run through me. 

Everything seemed to be pulled away from me, even my brother as in an instant I was back in Maz's basement, panting for breath as I clashed back down to the stone floor. I screwed my eyes shut, as if begging to go back into the vision, but it was gone, with nothing left but the lightsaber still tightly held in my left hand. 

I sat up, still gasping for breath, feeling as though the entire world had shifted beneath me, feeling the force flow through me in a way that it hadn't done for years, not since I ran from my brother and the darkness that had consumed him. That was when I noticed Rey and Maz stood over me, the scavenger girl looking at me worriedly. 

"Have you felt it?" I breathed out in amazement, the vision still echoing in my mind. "There's been an awakening,"

***

Word count: 2965

***


Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro